The quick release DVD was a quick and painless install, and the thin clients are beyond simple. Set it to PXE boot, and that's it. Core will automatically detect the "orbiter", and ask a few quick and easy questions (what room is this device in? What do you want it to do?).

I'll be continuing to experiment with this setup, building a whole home solution for under $1000.

I just picked up a 500gb sata hdd for $179, and that's the first purchase I've made for this system. All the rest of the stuff was already mine, so I still have $821 left to build the rest. Next, TV tuner and a gyro mouse.

are there any special requirements for the thin client or will any do?

See my other posts on this... but we are testing a number of fanless Via based clients using the C7/CN700 or CX700M chipsets at 1Ghz to 1.5Ghz. We just add a stick of memory, and optical drive if needed and thats it. Out of the box currently Kubuntu 7.04 and lmce-0704 do not have the Via driver support so you would need to build the Unichrome or Openchrome drivers to get the best graphics performance. These are low cost, energy efficient (as low as 9W) motherboards with excellent graphics.